Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: ( 1 Customer Review )

It doesn't get much worse than thisDecember 23, 2011By T. Drake (South Euclid, OH)See All My Reviews"This is the worst recording of the Rachamninoff Third Concerto I have ever heard (and I have heard about 30 of them.) The most charitable adjectives I can summon for this performance are hazy amd heavily medicated. I have nothing but sympathy for the trials Mr. Helfgott has had to endure, but I have even even greater sympathy for far more talented musicians who are trying to break into this difficult profession - only to have their hard work usurped by a cinematic sob story.

If you want to hear a great Rachmaninoff Third, try Horowitz/Ormandy, Horowitz/Reiner, Rachmaninoff/Ormandy, Cliburn/Kondrashin - ANYTHING but this travesty.

Helfgott plays the revised version of the Rachmaninoff Second Sonata. If this is the version you prefer, I suggest Thibaudet's fine performance on Decca. Personally, I feel that the revised version is too condensed (Rachmaninoff felt this way also, and allowed Vladimir Horowitz to create a combination of the original and revised versions). Both the 1968 Sony (lithe, pantherlike, and in excellent sound) and the 1980 RCA (brooding, with closely miked sound) Horowitz versions are my top picks for this work.